Danger41

Not to put you on the spot, but what did you do in the CAF?

This X 1000. I flew Draco with tons of folks from T-38 and T-1 backgrounds. There were bunches of T-1 folks that had the hands, SA, and fighting spirit to do single pilot employment. I know that these 46 dudes could handle this and it’s not the death sentence it’s being made out to be.

One thing that has made me chuckle throughout this whole thing is lots of pilots but tons of FE’s, Booms, Loadmasters, etc having story after story of how they saved the pilot flying from crashing etc. Is it really that insane to be flying in AMC? JFC you guys deserve DFC’s on every flight as dangerous as some of you make it sound. And also, I don’t know if the meme community knows it or not but the USAF isn’t represented by ALPA. I genuinely don’t understand that argument with this. By the same token should all T-38 guys and/or fighter dudes get black balled by ALPA because they willfully chose to disregard the almighty CRM and fly by themselves?

Those NGAD timelines aren’t rumor. The 7th Gen Army attack helos (AH-69 “Elizabeth Warrens”) from the 1/1064th CAB are the rumor.

I’ll probably get flamed for this, but if this is truly a response to a pilot shortage, then I’m glad it’s being looked at…AS LONG AS it’s part of a holistic approach. The root cause of course has to be on retention efforts, but if the reality of the situation is we don’t have the pilots needed to meet the frag and lose the war, then we have to accept reality. I’d personally rather have a bunch of single pilot KC-46’s passing gas to the strikers required to actually meet the night 1 goals than get a ton of folks killed because we can’t get everything needed to the fight.

What’s up with UAL’s? Seems like it went from great rumors, to terrible offering, to crickets.

But why would they steal secrets from a country that is our biggest international trading partner? We aren’t in conflict with them…/s

Decide what success looks like to you and understand the consequences of pursuing that. Want to be a big shot lawyer that makes alot of money AND be a good pilot in the F-35? Don’t lie to yourself that you’ll be Father/Husband of the year because you won’t. You’ll be slammed with time requirements and your family will have to bear that burden. Want to go to all the soccer games/tea parties? Serve your country by being a good citizen and raising good Americans. Don’t go be a pilot. Just be a lawyer and a family man. Want to look yourself in the mirror at the end of the day and not want to vomit? Drop out of law school and go be a pilot (kidding…kind of). Just have some frank and honest conversations with yourself and/or significant other if you care about their input and go from there.

How does the TSP work when you switch from AD to the Reserves/ANG? Smooth transition (doubtful) or painful government paperwork drill?

If you don’t think Americans would do something like this for the right price, you’re out of your mind. Plenty of ex-mil dudes don’t care about anything besides making money.

That example above is why I think the best senior officers and political officials are the ones that come from real working backgrounds and not some puppy mill. How is some 4 star that’s a legacy graduate of a service academy that’s known nothing besides the AF going to relate to normies? Or the senator who did student council, boys state, Ivy League, Ivy League law, senate staffer, etc understand that not everyone looks at service purely as some patriotic duty above all else? Tangentially related but this is why I like Teddy Roosevelt so much. Total silver spoon upbringing but moves to North Dakota after his wife and mom die on the same day and works a “strenuous life”. Gets to know real people and see what they’re about.

Slides were in Times New Roman and not Calibri so it was destined for success.

I was curious about that. How could that be the case with the A-10? Isn’t the receptacle standardized (STS) across the fleet? Therefore if it works on a F-16 or B-1, why wouldn’t it work on A-10?

If that’s the case, I don’t have a lot of sympathy for them. I’m not saying you lower the standard or whatever, but there’s a reason RASP has different versions. And also, what are they failing these dudes for?

I asked a CAA about that and heard that stemmed from the 6th getting closed but also the CAA’s not getting the beret wear approved into 36-2903. I have a hunch that if that would’ve happened, I doubt there would’ve been any drama since Lt Gen Slife’s view on the truly black/white nature of regulation adherence is well documented. Or he could have a grudge against them. Who knows.

I only somewhat snarkily ask this, but what is the ACTF doing daily? The word of this has been out for months. Why would they wait until now to "study" it. This is a massive (and IMO, the best) retention tool available and they should have already worked this math problem out. I don't know if anyone senior is actually looking at this site, but from one of the few AD guys from my YG, let me speak on behalf of the bros. I've had several (10+) folks that have become eligible for the bonus that have asked me for info on this. They are all intrigued and would likely sign on for the higher amount. A very common refrain is that they aren't too jazzed about going to the airlines, want to continue flying for the AD, but it doesn't make sense financially. I know that's an atom splitting revelation to say, but that's the ground truth. Pay these people and they will stay AD. I don't know why that's such a tough concept.

Additionally, within the last couple of weeks Putin updated Russian nuclear doctrine to now include territorial defense. Interesting timing on that little update.

I think the “why” with a lot of these life changes is that folks at varying levels of authority think this is the way this country is going. A small, vocal, lunatic fringe wants to go this way and they know how to amplify their voice via social media and other key areas. However, the VAST majority of people don’t care for this stuff. Has anyone ever met a chick that actually cares if the group is addressed as “guys”? I’ve flown with several gay folks and they never made the slightest bit of a deal out of any of this stuff. Honestly, the root cause of alot of this is well intentioned (but wacky) liberal, upper class white women. This is not a new phenomenon. They’re so sure they’re championing marginalized communities (Latinx anyone?) that they can’t be bothered to actually learn anything about the issues. I knew this was all bullshit when we had the meetings after George Floyd and I took it upon myself to try to really learn about the issues. I brought up discussions of civil rights going back to the Civil War up through Malcolm X vs MLK Jr, recidivism with black men, war on drugs, crack cocaine epidemic and the effects on the above, disenfranchisement, etc and got blank stares. Someone brought up “white people bad” and we were back on timeline. Bottom line, educate yourself on this stuff and you’ll learn something and also realize how much of our national discourse is fueled by the sound byte and online engagement. But that’s not where real people actually exist.

As Norm MacDonald said, cis is a way of marginalizing a normal person.

It’s so funny to me how communities shit all over each other when those outside don’t get it at all. All the tanker variants, F-15 vs F-16, Bomber dudes, U-28 vs everybody, etc. Whats the KC-10 Gucci thing about? I’ve heard it for years but have zero SA.

On 60 Minutes tonight President Biden unequivocally stated (again) that American forces would defend Taiwan, if needed. The production said that his administration stated we haven’t changed our official policy.

https://www.cbsnews.com/amp/news/fedex-earnings-profit-slashes-outlook-as-demand-slumps/ Brutal forecast for FedEx. Anyone seen anything/heard anything on the flying side of the business?

Yeah dude. I wasn’t being flippant when I said to go the congressional route. Don’t be like me and waste years with these people.

61.199 addresses your specific situation. Having said all this, save yourself time and effort and draft up a MFR with appropriate docs and send it to your congressman for help with a federal agency. That’s what I did and got it fixed in a week after trying with 3 FSDO’s and getting nowhere. On this note, I started this battle in 2015 and followed all the processes for petitioning for a reg change and worked for years to finally get it pushed through. It finally happened and then the FAA wouldn’t honor it. Broke my spirit.